I'm working on making side quests for my players to do when they want a break from the main campaign and to help them achieve personal quests, make their characters unique, allow their characters to shine ability wise, etc. And I have everyone except for our bard. I am coming up blank when it comes to finding the right story and balance for her side quest.
Characters Info: The bard is a female half-elf with highest abilities being dexterity and charisma, proficient in acrobatics deception, insight, perception, persuasion, sleight of hand, and stealth. Background is Charlatan. Her personal quest is to find the origin of her family. Her backstory is she was a toddler, at a party with her parents, party disrupted and her taken away by a man (later to be her mentor who taught her how to be a charlatan) and told one day this will all make sense, taught to be a con artist, master of disguise and trickery, now has flashbacks of the past.
I'd like to exercise her skills in her personal quest, but she is new so she wants to go light on roleplay and stay closer to dungeon crawl type roots. Hence, I'm finding a hard balance with a story and mechanics balance without going over the top.
Any DMs with ideas or resources out there they could share would be greatly appreciated.
It'd take quite a lot of prep work, but I can see a Bard Dungeon Crawl working as a good way to encourage the player into some more RP while still keeping the more familiar format. The setup could take any number of forms (a trial from the Bard's College, a puzzle box set up by an inscrutable extraplanar entity for their amusement, a 'reality show' that a bunch of mad wizards are scrying!), but the idea is that you create a dungeon uniquely suited to the Bard's talents. You challenge the Bard on each of their major skills (not necessarily with just a skill check, these simply provide themes to work with). For instance, take each of the character's proficient skills and build a room to challenge each one in turn. The party can be present, but you should make an effort to ensure that their main role is supporting the Bard (a nice inversion of the usual dynamic!) as this is, after all, her quest.
A few ideas:
Acrobatics: Easy enough. You enter a room in which a key hanging from the ceiling, clearly visible but not accessible by magical means (spells couldn't knock it loose, Mage Hand would fail ect). Around the room are a series of platforms, poles, ledges ect (you'll want a thorough map for this that the player can easily understand and use to plot a route). The Bard must figure out how to reach the key and make a series of Acrobatics checks to complete the challenge. Try and prepare for a shorter route that's more risky (few checks, high DCs, fall damage), and a slower, longer route (more checks, lower DCs, less risk).
Deception/Persuasion: Again, easy. They enter a room, and must talk their way out of it. A door is open on the far side of the room, but 3 characters block the way. The Bard must convince them to let her pass, which can be done via Deception checks. To encourage RP, raise or lower the DCs of the checks based on how effective and appropriate her line of argument is for each NPC. For instance, if one of the NPCs is a noble Knight, telling him she wants to pass so she can get some loot isn't going to work that well, but convincing him that she needs to pass to save a prisoner might work better (and thus result in a easier check).
Insight/Perception: Reverse the previous situation. Now, the Bard is the one being deceived and she must discern which of a group of NPCs with conflicting stories is telling the truth. Accuse the wrong one and the character may attack her, accuse the right one and the way is clear. Both the NPCs' dialogue and various evidence around the room should offer clues, so that guessing blindly is risky but paying attention to the details makes the final checks easier.
Sleight of Hand/Stealth: Set up a Bilbo Baggins/Smaug situation here. A powerful monster (one who will be a fair, but tough challenge for the party as a whole) guards a powerful item and the final key. Take these and the party can leave, but if they wake the monster, they must slay it before they are allowed out. This gives your dungeon crawl a final boss, and there are plenty of creative ways that the Bard and the party might approach it. Just be careful that if you have an actual Thief in the party, they don't take too much of the spotlight here (obviously if there is a Thief, they should be the one making a grab for the item, but in that situation the onus falls to the Bard to distract the creature's attention through Performance, Sleight of Hand, Acrobatics ect while the Thief does their bit).
Set up right, this is something that could be got through in a session or two and hopefully ease the player into being more comfortable with Roleplaying (there are fewer consequences to failure here than there would be in a less contrived setting, so it's alright to mess it up a bit). You might want to add some more combat rooms if your group prefers more of a hack and slash style, but there's still scope to make them thematic. A room of crazed clowns makes for a fun and memorable fight, or it'd be easy enough to add some bardic features to a few classic enemies in entertaining ways (caster enemies using instruments as their Spellcasting Focus, a bunch of Goblins in really terrible disguises ect), though obviously this will extend the length of the dungeon and the bard elements should still be at the forefront.
The main trouble is setting it up in a convincing way; it is a very contrived situation that does require the players to suspend their disbelief and embrace some of the silliness, but unless you're playing a really dark or low-magic setting, there's probably room for at least one of the setups I mentioned at the top of the post. Besides, a Bard-themed quest is the ultimate excuse to go a little bit zany in your setup!
Hope that gives you some ideas... And if not, at least I know exactly what I'm throwing at my bard next time he's up for a quest!
Ok, the party was hosted by some shadowy ultra-elite group of aristocracy. They host these parties regularly, but every 33 years the party is actually cover for a trap! The society is in league with a dark fey prince of the Unseelie Court and on the 33-year parties the entire guest list is abducted into the feywild and trapped frozen in time while the prince drains their life force over the coming centuries. The mentor was a young member of the society but his conscience got the better of him and he snatched up this innocent kid and ran just before the portal closed. He raised the kid in hiding, teaching her the skills he knew, and what she would likely need to know to sneak into the next 33-year party and rescue her parents. He's been spending the time finding the other resources needed: an amulet of protection against the time freeze, some contacts in the feywild who would like to see this prince brought down, info on the next party etc.
The mentor or a fey ally turn up suddenly one day with the story, the amulet and the intel. There's no time to lose! Some cursory lying and stealing and forging and disguising required to get into the party, then play dead for the capture. From that point on it's a dungeon crawl through a psychedelic dark faerie citadel. It's not impossible because the prince assumes the prisoners are all frozen, and the fey allies are waiting to storm the castle the moment his defences are disabled. Lots of leaping across gaping chasms, creeping through silent halls, ambush some guards, music-loving mini boss who can be defeated in a duel of fiddles, work your way to the grand dining hall where the enchanted crystal ewer is endlessly filling itself with the essence of stolen lives, smash it to break the spell and set off the boss fight to secure escape. Triumphant ending, tempered with sadness since it turns out the parents and all other victims minds have been erased and can barely function. Mentor escorts them to local temple where they maybe recover slowly, if only some hero were able to go out at some future point and fetch that magical macguffin that will aid in the healing process....
I like to think about the story of the classes more in depth. So maybe the school they went to to become a bard needs their help, or some evil mage has taken control of that place, turning it corrupt.
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I'm working on making side quests for my players to do when they want a break from the main campaign and to help them achieve personal quests, make their characters unique, allow their characters to shine ability wise, etc. And I have everyone except for our bard. I am coming up blank when it comes to finding the right story and balance for her side quest.
Characters Info: The bard is a female half-elf with highest abilities being dexterity and charisma, proficient in acrobatics deception, insight, perception, persuasion, sleight of hand, and stealth. Background is Charlatan. Her personal quest is to find the origin of her family. Her backstory is she was a toddler, at a party with her parents, party disrupted and her taken away by a man (later to be her mentor who taught her how to be a charlatan) and told one day this will all make sense, taught to be a con artist, master of disguise and trickery, now has flashbacks of the past.
I'd like to exercise her skills in her personal quest, but she is new so she wants to go light on roleplay and stay closer to dungeon crawl type roots. Hence, I'm finding a hard balance with a story and mechanics balance without going over the top.
Any DMs with ideas or resources out there they could share would be greatly appreciated.
Here you go: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6aaB76e06XdSFRMSTNwOFo4Qmc
It's a short side-quest-type adventure tailor made for a bard.
It'd take quite a lot of prep work, but I can see a Bard Dungeon Crawl working as a good way to encourage the player into some more RP while still keeping the more familiar format. The setup could take any number of forms (a trial from the Bard's College, a puzzle box set up by an inscrutable extraplanar entity for their amusement, a 'reality show' that a bunch of mad wizards are scrying!), but the idea is that you create a dungeon uniquely suited to the Bard's talents. You challenge the Bard on each of their major skills (not necessarily with just a skill check, these simply provide themes to work with). For instance, take each of the character's proficient skills and build a room to challenge each one in turn. The party can be present, but you should make an effort to ensure that their main role is supporting the Bard (a nice inversion of the usual dynamic!) as this is, after all, her quest.
A few ideas:
Acrobatics: Easy enough. You enter a room in which a key hanging from the ceiling, clearly visible but not accessible by magical means (spells couldn't knock it loose, Mage Hand would fail ect). Around the room are a series of platforms, poles, ledges ect (you'll want a thorough map for this that the player can easily understand and use to plot a route). The Bard must figure out how to reach the key and make a series of Acrobatics checks to complete the challenge. Try and prepare for a shorter route that's more risky (few checks, high DCs, fall damage), and a slower, longer route (more checks, lower DCs, less risk).
Deception/Persuasion: Again, easy. They enter a room, and must talk their way out of it. A door is open on the far side of the room, but 3 characters block the way. The Bard must convince them to let her pass, which can be done via Deception checks. To encourage RP, raise or lower the DCs of the checks based on how effective and appropriate her line of argument is for each NPC. For instance, if one of the NPCs is a noble Knight, telling him she wants to pass so she can get some loot isn't going to work that well, but convincing him that she needs to pass to save a prisoner might work better (and thus result in a easier check).
Insight/Perception: Reverse the previous situation. Now, the Bard is the one being deceived and she must discern which of a group of NPCs with conflicting stories is telling the truth. Accuse the wrong one and the character may attack her, accuse the right one and the way is clear. Both the NPCs' dialogue and various evidence around the room should offer clues, so that guessing blindly is risky but paying attention to the details makes the final checks easier.
Sleight of Hand/Stealth: Set up a Bilbo Baggins/Smaug situation here. A powerful monster (one who will be a fair, but tough challenge for the party as a whole) guards a powerful item and the final key. Take these and the party can leave, but if they wake the monster, they must slay it before they are allowed out. This gives your dungeon crawl a final boss, and there are plenty of creative ways that the Bard and the party might approach it. Just be careful that if you have an actual Thief in the party, they don't take too much of the spotlight here (obviously if there is a Thief, they should be the one making a grab for the item, but in that situation the onus falls to the Bard to distract the creature's attention through Performance, Sleight of Hand, Acrobatics ect while the Thief does their bit).
Set up right, this is something that could be got through in a session or two and hopefully ease the player into being more comfortable with Roleplaying (there are fewer consequences to failure here than there would be in a less contrived setting, so it's alright to mess it up a bit). You might want to add some more combat rooms if your group prefers more of a hack and slash style, but there's still scope to make them thematic. A room of crazed clowns makes for a fun and memorable fight, or it'd be easy enough to add some bardic features to a few classic enemies in entertaining ways (caster enemies using instruments as their Spellcasting Focus, a bunch of Goblins in really terrible disguises ect), though obviously this will extend the length of the dungeon and the bard elements should still be at the forefront.
The main trouble is setting it up in a convincing way; it is a very contrived situation that does require the players to suspend their disbelief and embrace some of the silliness, but unless you're playing a really dark or low-magic setting, there's probably room for at least one of the setups I mentioned at the top of the post. Besides, a Bard-themed quest is the ultimate excuse to go a little bit zany in your setup!
Hope that gives you some ideas... And if not, at least I know exactly what I'm throwing at my bard next time he's up for a quest!
Ok, the party was hosted by some shadowy ultra-elite group of aristocracy. They host these parties regularly, but every 33 years the party is actually cover for a trap! The society is in league with a dark fey prince of the Unseelie Court and on the 33-year parties the entire guest list is abducted into the feywild and trapped frozen in time while the prince drains their life force over the coming centuries. The mentor was a young member of the society but his conscience got the better of him and he snatched up this innocent kid and ran just before the portal closed. He raised the kid in hiding, teaching her the skills he knew, and what she would likely need to know to sneak into the next 33-year party and rescue her parents. He's been spending the time finding the other resources needed: an amulet of protection against the time freeze, some contacts in the feywild who would like to see this prince brought down, info on the next party etc.
The mentor or a fey ally turn up suddenly one day with the story, the amulet and the intel. There's no time to lose! Some cursory lying and stealing and forging and disguising required to get into the party, then play dead for the capture. From that point on it's a dungeon crawl through a psychedelic dark faerie citadel. It's not impossible because the prince assumes the prisoners are all frozen, and the fey allies are waiting to storm the castle the moment his defences are disabled. Lots of leaping across gaping chasms, creeping through silent halls, ambush some guards, music-loving mini boss who can be defeated in a duel of fiddles, work your way to the grand dining hall where the enchanted crystal ewer is endlessly filling itself with the essence of stolen lives, smash it to break the spell and set off the boss fight to secure escape. Triumphant ending, tempered with sadness since it turns out the parents and all other victims minds have been erased and can barely function. Mentor escorts them to local temple where they maybe recover slowly, if only some hero were able to go out at some future point and fetch that magical macguffin that will aid in the healing process....
I like to think about the story of the classes more in depth. So maybe the school they went to to become a bard needs their help, or some evil mage has taken control of that place, turning it corrupt.